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Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage: An Enduring Event Facilitating Momentary Connectedness via Transnational Publics

Published: 19 July 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Social Networking Platforms can provide a public space for the formation and engagement of global transnational networks. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the unique "virtual wa'a (canoe)" community engagement model developed and utilized by the Polynesian Voyaging Society during the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage. Through the use of social network analysis, community detection and text analysis, this study examines the function of the Hōkūle'a Crew Facebook Page as a transnational public during the voyage, as well as the formation of smaller engaged communities within the global online network during the voyage. The sheer volume of actions and the overall positive affect in the liking and commenting centered on the Hōkūle'a Crew Facebook Page appears to be connected to the movements of Hōkūle'a and significant events that occurred throughout the voyage. The initial findings of this research support the Polynesian Voyaging Society's use of a "virtual wa'a" to engage individuals, organizations, and communities on a global level, and the ability of the virtual wa'a to serve as a transnational public for community engagement.

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SMSociety '19: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Social Media and Society
July 2019
247 pages
ISBN:9781450366519
DOI:10.1145/3328529
Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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  • Ryerson Univeristy: Ryerson Univeristy

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Published: 19 July 2019

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Author Tags

  1. Social networking platforms
  2. community detection
  3. content analysis
  4. event-driven communities
  5. social network analysis
  6. transnational publics

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